Michel Anne Frederic DeGraff[1] (born 1963) is a Haitian creolist and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His scholarship focuses on Creole studies and the role of language and linguistics for decolonization and liberation.[2] He has advocated for the recognition of Haitian Creole as a full-fledged language.[2]
Michel DeGraff
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Michel DeGraff at MIT-Haiti Symposium in 2010
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| Born | 1963 (age 60–61) |
| Alma mater | University of Pennsylvania |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Linguistics, Haitian Creole |
| Institutions | M.I.T. |
| Thesis | Creole grammars and acquisition of syntax: The case of Haitian |
| Website | Official site |
DeGraff was born in Haiti in 1963.[3] He grew up in a middle-class family and attended a top school where the instruction was in French. Despite not being a top student, he felt that French was a hindrance as not speaking it well caused complexes of inferiority among otherwise bright children.[4] He believes that he spoke one and a half languages, with Haitian Creole being the "half", when in fact the language that all children spoke well by default was Creole.[4] He recalls that French, although imposed at home and at school, was never used for jokes or on the soccer field.[4]
DeGraff moved to New York in 1982 and enrolled in City College of New York, where he studied computer science.[5] He developed an interest in linguistics during an internship at Bell LabsinNew Jersey in 1985, as a Summer Intern at AT&T Bell Laboratories' Linguistics and Artificial Intelligence department.[5] In 1992, he earned a PhD in computer science from the University of Pennsylvania, with a dissertation on the role of language acquisition in the formation of the syntax of Haitian Creole.[5]
DeGraff is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[2] He previously served on the board of the Journal of Haitian Studies.[2] He is also a founding member of the Haitian Creole Academy.[6]
In the fall of 2012, he received a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation to introduce online Creole language materials in the teaching of STEM in Haiti.[2] He believes that Haitian children should be taught in their native language at all levels of instruction, contrary to the tradition of teaching them in French.[4][dead link] DeGraff believes that instruction in French, a foreign language for most Haitian children, hinders their creativity and their ability to excel.[4]
DeGraff's research is meant to contributes to an egalitarian approach to Creole, Indigenous and other non-colonial languages and their speakers, such as in Haiti. In addition to linguistics and education, his writings engage history and critical race theory, especially the links between power-knowledge hierarchies and the hegemonic representations of non-colonial languages and their speakers in the Global South and beyond. DeGraff's academic work promotes language and linguistics for decolonization and liberation, especially in Haiti and other Creole-speaking communities.[citation needed]
In 2022, Degraff was elected as a fellow of the Linguistic Society of America.[7]
In response to the 2023 Israel–Hamas war, DeGraff wrote in support of universal justice and freedom for Israelis and Palestinians,[8][9] and criticized MIT's leadership's stance on Gaza protests and counter-protests.[10] He resigned from his position on the executive council of the Linguistic Society of America (LSA) in protest against the organization's stance on the conflict.[11][non-primary source needed]
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